Hazleton drug bust nets dozens

ELLEN F. O'CONNELL/Staff Photographer
An officer watches over a group of suspects handcuffed to a bench in a makeshift waiting area in the basement of Hazleton City Hall during Wednesday's Operation Rising Star.

The "clink" of metal handcuffs closing sounded time and again Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as state and local law enforcement engineered the largest round-up of drug-trade suspects the Hazleton area has ever seen.

Preliminary reports indicated police arrested about 30 people on various drug charges in the sting. Details emerged Wednesday afternoon as Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Kathleen Kane held a press conference at Hazleton City Hall.

The investigative work and resulting arrests, tabbed Operation Rising Star, comes after six months of work by the attorney general's new street crimes unit - Region 10 IMPACT, Intensive Mobile Proactive Anti-Crime Team - alongside Hazleton and other local police.

Kane said the months-long effort resulted in 150 arrests in total, and netted 9,000 bags of heroin with a value of about $100,000. Agents also seized other drugs likes cocaine, along with cash, guns and televisions.

The initiative in Hazleton culminated Tuesday afternoon as dozens of law enforcement officers prepared for a final push. They gathered in a second-floor room at City Hall, broke into teams and received specific instructions for arresting their targets that day and night.

The number of expected arrests were "through the roof," a senior agent said while commenting on the success of the operation. The agent was briefing the officers before they dispersed onto city streets looking for suspects. Other officers broke into smaller groups to discuss specific tactics they would employ while entering certain homes.

Kane attended the meeting and shook hands with officers, congratulating them on their work.

The teams then left in convoys of multiple vehicles, armed with search and arrest warrants procured through months of investigative work that included hundreds of controlled drug purchases.

Law enforcement swarmed buildings and flooded city streets. They included not only agents and Hazleton police but police from West Hazleton, Sugarloaf, Butler Township, Luzerne County Detectives, Pennsylvania National Guard, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Agency.

On Tuesday night, one team shut down a swath of East Diamond Avenue between Wyoming Street and Fulton Court, stopping traffic as they stealthily approached the front of 37 E. Diamond Ave. Officers entered the building with weapons drawn, and minutes later re-emerged back, then split up to tackle other assignments.

Later, officers processed suspects at City Hall like an assembly line. They were escorted through the basement doors in restraints, searched and fingerprinted. Many waited in shackles in the Hazleton Police Department's holding cells before being taken to district court for arraignment.

The suspects were either released on bail or taken to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility by the Luzerne County Sheriff's Department. The sheriff's department made multiple trips between Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre, its vehicles filled to capacity every time.

Wilkes-Barre police lent its paddy wagon for the mass arrests in exchange for a full tank of gas.

Earlier, at district court in Hazleton, Magisterial District Judges Joseph Zola of Hazleton and Daniel O'Donnell of Sugarloaf Township had only a wall separating them as they awaited the arrival of the first round of suspects at 4 p.m.

The court added more staff to handle the workload; among them, a secretary from O'Donnell's office and two secretaries from Hazleton City Hall. Nursing staffers from the prison were also in the court offices to assist defendants.

Soon, the same officers who flooded the streets of the Hazleton area likewise flooded the court system with suspected drug dealers and users. Kane was also at district court to witness some of the arraignments.

The court bustled with activity through the night Tuesday until about 1 a.m. Wednesday. The judges and their staffs returned to the office at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and continued with arraignments throughout the day.

Later, the arrests swelled and Magisterial District Judge James Dixon picked up some cases, conducting arraignments at his office in Hazle Township.

During one hearing in Hazleton, Felipe Gonzalez, 35, told O'Donnell he has lived in Drifton for three years and was never arrested before during his arraignment around 6 p.m.

However, Tuesday, he found himself before O'Donnell on a possession charge. He told the judge he turned himself in after his wife told him police were at their home looking for him. Gonzalez was released on unsecured bail.

Near the same time, Robert Nemeth, 35, Hazleton, and Adam Kasten, 21, New Philadelphia, were also arraigned on possession charges but their criminal past prevented them from receiving unsecured bail set by Zola.

Zola set Nemeth's bail, who was also wanted on a warrant for a non-traffic citation, at $2,500, and Kasten's, who was out on bail in a case in Schuylkill County, at $5,000.

On Wednesday morning, James E. Drob Sr., 51, McAdoo, was arraigned on drug-delivery charges, and Zola set his bail at $50,000. Drob told the judge he had been charged with selling drugs a few years ago, too.

The following is a list of people arrested recently in Operation Rising Star, according to criminal dockets filed by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.

Those arrested for drug-delivery offenses and their bails are:

Jackie Cieniawa, 27, Hazleton, $35,000.

Vanessa Milagros Bonilla, 25, Hazleton, $25,000.

Rafael Hernandez, 40, Hazleton, $25,000.

Oliver E. Rivera, 20, Drums, $250,000.

Kyle A. Yatsko, 20, Hazleton, $150,000.

Juan Santiago, 40, Hazleton, $75,000.

Gerardo Diaz-Perez, 34, Hazleton, $25,000 unsecured.

John Felice Jr., 45, Freeland, $35,000.

Pedro M. Crespo, 19, Hazleton, $75,000 unsecured.

Duamel Munoz-Rodriguez, 36, Hazleton, $35,000.

Alyssa L. Kalnas, 20, Hazleton, $25,000 unsecured.

Juanita Boynton, 37, Hazleton, $50,000.

Johnny E. Boynton, 35, Hazleton, $100,000.

Shalyn A. Blankenship, 31, Berwick, $35,000 unsecured.

Dennis E. Cooper, 55, Hazleton, $75,000 unsecured.

Victor De Los Santos, 23, Hazleton, $50,000.

Matthew Genery, 25, Hazleton, $35,000.

Christopher L. Velasquez, 25, no known address, $50,000

James E. Drob Sr., 51, McAdoo, $50,000.

Joel A. Fernandez, 23, Hazleton, $50,000.

Justine A. Yakubik, 31, Hazleton, $50,000.

Juan T. Vidal, 33, Hazleton, $100,000.

Those arrested on drug-possession charges and their bails are:

Ryan A. Petrulsky, 25, Hazleton, $20,000.

Shelia Gimbi, 28, Hazleton, $2,000 unsecured.

Michael J. Campbell, 21, Hazleton, $150,000.

Terrance A. Belt, 21, Hazleton, $5,000.

Rafael Colon, 42, Hazleton, $2,500.

Felipe Gonzalez, 36, Drifton, $10,000 unsecured.

Joshua L. Minaker, 28, Freeland, $5,000.

Adam J. Kasten, 21, New Philadelphia, $5,000.

Justin Hill, 22, Lansford, $2,000.

Tracey A. Decker, 43, Hazletno, $1,000.

Robert J. Nemeth, 35, Hazleton, $2,500.

Harry Bellitts, 44, Tresckow, $2,500.

achristman@standardspeaker.com

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